1. Field
The invention relates generally to database caches.
2. Background
Nearly all commercial database systems rely on caching techniques to improve performance. Caches are often implemented in memory that can be accessed quickly, such as random access memory (RAM), as opposed to storage that takes longer to access, such as disk-based storage. Caches typically store frequently used data and reduce the time needed by a database system to access a data page. RAM, however, is much more costly than disk-based storage.